1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a disc cartridge, and more particularly to a disc cartridge that is capable of providing various driving modes for a disc received within the cartridge and selecting the driving modes efficiently. Also, the present invention is directed to a disc recording/reproducing method and apparatus making use of the disc cartridge providing various recording modes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a disc is classified as a read-only type disc such as CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, etc., a WORM(write once read many) type disc such as CD-R and DVD-R, etc., and a rewritable disc such as CD-RW, DVD-RAM and optical magnetic disc, etc. The read-only type disc in such discs has been usually propagated in a shape of bare disc. On the other hand, the rewritable disc has been received within the cartridge for the purpose of protecting an information recording face from contamination or impact. This is a concern since the information recording face of the rewritable disc is subject to be contaminated and damaged by fingerprints, dust, scratches and so forth. When an information is recorded or reproduced to or from a disc received within such a disc cartridge, a disc driver moves a shutter provided in the cartridge to expose an opening, thereby assuring access to the disc.
Nowadays, there has been suggested an open-close structure by which a disc can be removed from its cartridge, so as to meet various needs of a user. Accordingly, a disc cartridge may be classified into a sealed type and an open-close type depending on whether it can be opened and closed. The open-close type cartridge has a structure that enables a user to insert or release a disc. In this case, when a disc has been released from the cartridge, a defect area caused by an external contamination or impact may occur on the information recording face of the disc, so that an error occurs at the time of recording or reproducing an information. More specifically, a user is usually intended to compatibly drive a disc by a disc driver having a different driving condition, that is, a disc driver installed to a portable information equipment or a stationary information equipment. For instance, an information can be recorded onto a disc received within a cartridge by a first disc driver installed to a camcorder and an information can be reproduced and edited from the disc by a second disc driver installed to the stationary information equipment. In this case, since the second disc driver can be loaded only in a state of bare disc when it corresponds to a read-only type disc driver, a user must take the disc from the cartridge and load it into the second disc driver. However, since a disc may be contaminated or damaged when it has been released into the outside of a cartridge at a user""s request, an error can occur at the time of recording or reproducing an information to or from the disc having a release experience. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to for the disc driver to confirm a release experience of the disc, that is, an opened and closed experience of the cartridge at the time of recording or reproducing to or from the disc received within the open-close type cartridge and to precede a verifying operation for the purpose of assuring an information responsibility when the disc has a release experience. Accordingly, the disc cartridge is usually provided with a hole for confirming the opened and closed experience of the cartridge. Also, the disc cartridge is provided with a number of functional holes including a functional hole for indicating a recording prohibition.
The disc driver is mounted with a sensor for sensing a disc state depending on whether or not there has been an opening and closing of the functional holes provided in the cartridge. In other words, when a disc cartridge is loaded, the disc driver senses an opening and closing of the functional holes provided in the disc cartridge by means of the sensor and judges a driving mode of a disc received within the disc cartridge. For instance, when it is sensed by the sensor that the opened and closed experience confirming hole of the loaded disc cartridge is opened, since a disc received within the cartridge has been released from the cartridge at least once, the disc driver regards as a contamination or a damage of the disc to operate a drive mode preceding a verification operation for the disc.
However, the disc verification process has a disadvantage in that, although it is requisite for an assurance of information responsibility, it requires more time than a usual recording process. In other words, a case where a recording process is performed after a verification process for the disc was preceded requires twice the time when compared with a case where a recording process is just performed without a verification process, which is hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cdirect recording modexe2x80x9d. In particular, even when a user receives a bare disc released from the disc cartridge again within the cartridge after polishing an information recording face thereof, the disc driver precedes a verification process for the disc because the opened and closed experience confirming hole is in a state of being opened. In this case, a problem exists in that a user wastes the time associated with an unnecessary verification process. This is caused by a fact that a conventional cartridge fails to allow a user to perform a recording process directly without a verification process for a disc having a release experience. As described above, the functional holes configuration installed in a conventional disc cartridge has a drawback in that it provides only a limited function. Also, the conventional cartridge has a problem in that a user may be confused by the co-existence of a number of functional holes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disc cartridge that is capable of providing various drive modes for a disc and permits a user to select from among the drive modes efficiently.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a disc cartridge wherein an opening or closing of functional holes indicating various drive mode can be selected by a single selecting device.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a disc cartridge wherein a recording prohibition mode and a direct recording mode only are applied when a disc does not have a release experience while a verification preceding recording mode can be selected by a user when a disc has a release experience, thereby preventing a user""s error in advance.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a disc recording/reproducing method and apparatus for performing recording and reproducing operations for a disc making use of a disc cartridge providing various operation modes.
In order to achieve these and other objects of the invention, a disc cartridge according to one aspect of the present invention has mode selecting means for selecting any one of a recording prohibition mode, a verification preceding recording mode and a direct recording mode.
A disc recording/reproducing method according to another aspect of the present invention includes the steps of confirming a current mode when a disc cartridge including a recording prohibition mode, a verification preceding recording mode and a direct recording mode is loaded; and driving a disc received within the disc cartridge in accordance with a mode confirmed in the confirming step.
A disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to still another aspect of the present invention includes sensing means for sensing a current mode when a disc cartridge including a recording prohibition mode, a verification preceding recording mode and a direct recording mode is loaded; recording/reproducing means for performing a recording and reproducing operation of the disc received within the disc cartridge; mode discriminating means for judging a disc driving mode in accordance with a sensing signal inputted from the sensing means; and control means for controlling the recording/reproducing means in a driving mode determined at the mode discriminating means.